Youth councillor booked for alleged blasphemy granted bail

DROSH: A youth councillor who was booked for alleged blasphemy a few days ago was granted bail by a local court.

The councillor was brought to his hometown of Drosh in a procession of people and garlanded upon arrival at his home.

According to sources, while taking up the case the judge asked the SHO of the Drosh police if he had taken permission from the deputy commissioner or the home department before registering the blasphemy case. The SHO then sought time to get permission from the DC. At this, the judge granted the accused bail and observed that the SHO had registered the case without fulfilling the legal requirement.

Talking to ChiralToday, coordinator for the Community Policing Forum (CPF) Irshad Mukarar hailed the release of the councilor and said action should now be taken against the SHO for booking the youth councillor in the case wrongly.

He said: “On July 7, 2017, hundreds of people took to the streets in the Drosh town against prolonged power outages. Later, the police registered a case against the youth councilor on the charge of pelting stones on a madrassa during the protest demonstration.”

He said when he approached the SHO of the Drosh police station after receiving complaints from the mother of the youth councilor, the SHO said a particular group of religious clerics had come to him and wanted to get a case registered against the youth councillor on the charge of blasphemy. Elaborating the matter, the SHO said after the protest against prolonged loadshedding in the Drosh town some children had pelted stones on the house of a union council (UC) nazim belonging to a religious party. Using his political affiliation, the UC nazim wanted to get the youth councillor booked in a blasphemy case.”

Mr Mukarar added: “The SHO candidly told me that if he did not register a case against the youth councillor the particular group of religious leaders would launch a propaganda against him.”

Mr Mukarar said the SHO seemed determined to fulfil the agenda of some miscreants instead of ensuring to follow the law in accordance with his official obligation. He said no one had thrown stones on the madrassa which was located near his home in the Drosh town. He said the SHO had booked the youth councillor on the pressure of a certain group of religious leaders.

He said the government should take action against the police officer so that no one could misuse the blasphemy law in future against anyone without sound proof and without following the due course of law. He said the release of the youth by the court would discourage fundamentalist elements from misusing the law against their rivals. He said being the coordinator of the CPF, he always appreciated the role of the army, the deputy commissioner and the district police officer of Chital in maintaining peace and harmony in Chitral.

He said anyone trying to misuse the blasphemy law for setting scores should be given exemplary punishment in order to ensure rule of law and promotion of peace in the valley.